Australia's First 4 Billion Years
Australia's First 4 Billion Years is a PBS NOVA documentary series hosted by Richard Smith, exploring the history of the planet as seen through the window of the Australian continent. Of all the continents on Earth, none preserves a more spectacular story of our planet's origins than Australia. With help from host and scientist Richard Smith, we meet titanic dinosaurs and giant kangaroos, sea monsters and prehistoric crustaceans, disappearing mountains and deadly asteroids. Epic in scope, intimate in nature, this is the untold story of the land "down under," the one island continent that has got it all.
| Episode 1 - Awakening |
Episode 1 - Awakening
What can Australia reveal about how Earth was born and how life took hold? This program reveals clues to the mysteries of when the Earth was born, how life first arose, and how it transformed the planet.
Episode 2 - Life Explodes
How did life storm the beaches and dominate planet Earth? Ancient Australian fossils offer clues in "Life Explodes."
Episode 3 - Monsters
This program resurrects the giants that stalked the Great Southern Land and discovers that some of these animals were among the largest ever to have walked the Earth.
Episode 4 - Strange Creatures
This program traces the last 65 million years, revealing the events that shaped the Australia we know today.
| Related Links |
| Earth: Making of a Planet This is a documentary by National Geographic Channel, telling the story of planet Earth from its birth 4.5 billion years ago, through ice-ages and the dinosaur's reign to the first humans. |
| Life on Earth: A Natural History This is a BBC nature documentary series, consisting of thirteen episodes (each of around 55 minutes' duration), about a study of the evolution of life on the planet. |
| Nature of Australia This is a six-part documentary series hosted by George Page, exploring the diversity of Australia's landscapes. |
| David Attenborough's First Life This is a two-part BBC documentary series presented by David Attenborough, looking at the origin of life on Earth. |
| Walking with Monsters This is a BBC documentary series narrated by Kenneth Branagh, dealing with the evolution of life in the Paleozoic. |
| Wild Australia This is a four-part National Geographic documentary series that features Australia's iconic and mysterious wild animals including the cassowary, tree-kangaroo, dingo, echidna and platypus. |
| Wild Down Under This is a BBC nature documentary series narrated by Matt Day, exploring the natural history of the Australasian continent. |